31 Weeks

Okay, I'm really hurting now. But the heat wave is over, and we got a window a/c unit for our bedroom, so I'm not nearly as swollen as I was last week. Sam and I did go to a hotel for two days and it was a fabulous getaway, even though the hotel a/c couldn't quite get the room cool enough for me. Yes, the heat was that intense here!

I don't think I've mentioned it here, but my biggest problem symptom of this pregnancy is the carpal tunnel syndrome in both my hands. It stared about two months ago and it's bad enough that I can't hold a pen or a razor or a hair dryer without my fingers going completely numb. I'm also awakened in the middle of the night with excruciating pain occasionally, although the wrist braces that I wear at night help a lot. Luckily, it doesn't seem to be progressive. It started out bad and it's still bad, but no worse, and it should disappear after I deliver. The cause is all the extra fluid in my body compressing that nerve.

What is causing me to hurt more now is the fatigue. It is so hard to carry around these babies. They're heavy! They wear me out! Getting in and out of the car is a challenge, and as I've mentioned, I try to avoid stairs at all costs. But I have good days and bad days. Two days ago I had a great day. Yesterday I struggled all day. Today seems somewhere in between. But as long as I can keep cool and get a lot of horizontal time each day, I think I'll be okay.

I'm going to the gestational diabetes class tomorrow. What a waste of time. But I think they're going to give me a prick kit as part of the program. I look forward to testing my glucose levels and proving the stupid test wrong.

The bathroom remodel continues. We can't do anything about preparing the nursery or even buying supplies for the babies until it's done. But I made a list, and I think we should be able to get everything done by the end of August. I'm figuring that there is no way, even if I deliver before the end of August, that the babies will come home any sooner than September 1.  So that is my drop-dead date to get everything prepared.

We still haven't decided on the exact names for our babies. We know we'll call them Leo and Zoe, but we haven't yet decided if they'll have middle names, and if so, what they would be. Adam and I don't have middle names, but we gave one to Sam. (Miriam, after Adam's mom who died a long time ago.) And we have to decide if Leo's name will actually be Leonidas, or just Leo. Leonidas is the inspiration for the name, but we don't intend to ever call him that. Still, it's a pretty damn cool name. Of course Zoe is just Zoe, unless we want to give her the middle name Alleyne, which might be cool since that is the inspiration for her name. I just thought of that. I'll have to talk to Adam about it. Our two warriors.

We have decided that we're not circumcising Leo. Maybe I'll write more about why we made this decision in a future post, but the short explanation is that we think that circumcision is a relic of religion and nothing more. Any arguments you hear about the medical benefits of circumcision appear to us to be complete rationalizations for a barbaric practice. It actually seems to be such an obvious decision that it's hard for me to get motivated to write any further about it. But someday I'll probably get angry about it and go on a rant, so you have that to look forward to.